Rechtsstaat

Rechtsstaat (German: Rechtsstaat) is a doctrine in continental European legal thinking, originally borrowed from German jurisprudence, which can be translated as a "legal state", "state of law", "state of justice", or "state of rights","state based on justice and integrity". It is a "constitutional state" in which the exercise of governmental power is constrained by the law, and is often tied to the Anglo-American concept of the rule of law, but differs from it in that it also places an emphasis on what is just (i.e. a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion or equity). Thus it is the opposite of Obrigkeitsstaat (a state based on the arbitrary use of power).